This article considers the challenges faced by social workers struggling to act ethically in what we characterise as the ‘unethical climate’ of neoliberalism. We offer a brief account of the current context, including the increasing managerialism and marketisation of welfare services, exacerbated by cuts in welfare provision following the 2008 financial crisis. We discuss the concepts of ‘ethical resistance’ and ‘ethics work’. We illustrate this with three case examples drawn from accounts given by social workers in Canada and England in (...) the context of two research studies. These accounts feature social workers struggling to be ethically good and to do what they consider to be the right actions in difficult circumstances. We interpret their accounts of their actions largely in terms of everyday ethical resistance to organisational pressures of regulation of practice and rationing of resources. We conclude that everyday ethical resistance is not enough to ‘make good’ the unethical climate, but is an important precursor to social and political resistance. (shrink)

Using a case vignette as an illustration, an expanded framework for examining ethical issues in human service practice is proposed. The article argues that the helping relationship is multiply constructed through discursive fields, rather than being a given, and that the lens of ethics must be widened to understand both the highly contradictory nature of practice, with its accompanying paradoxes, and the broader structures that constrain and influence practitioners. The article draws on the centrality of the concept of ethical trespass (...) to recognize the inevitability of some level of harm in the application of human service work, despite intention or skill. At the same time, investigating workers' uses of resistance to the dominant discourses is suggested as a means to edge toward the reduction of trespass. (shrink)

How social workers do construct what is ‘ethical’ in their work, especially when they are positioned at the intersection of multiple paradoxes, including that of two opposing responsibilities in society: namely, to care for others but also to prevent others from harm? Paradoxes in practice are especially complicated to manage in the neoliberalism of the Global North where the priority of efficiency has been heightened and the obligation towards the most vulnerable has been weakened. Taking data from a Canadian study, (...) this paper delineates the structural paradoxes of practice and elaborates on the concept of ethical trespass, especially in times of austerity. Ideas are illustrated with case material from participants who were practitioners working with a population of young single impoverished mothers. Impacts of the discourses on single mothers, resource inadequacies, and increased surveillance on clients are discussed, and the effects on workers such as individualization and burnout will be outlined. Despite the challenges, practitioners in the study found ways to minimize trespass and act ethically. The strategies employed included problematizing the helping relationship, being a responsible traitor, dissident speech, and the use of contextualized practice. (shrink)

How ethics in human services is a political activity, shaping social relationships, is explored through the examination of two opposing discourses, a principle-based and a situated/relational narrative. Factors such as neo-liberalism, managerialism, and the risk-aversive society give a context for the reasons that the principle-based discourse has been the predominant influence, and what interests are served by this trope taking center stage. A delineation and critique of both perspectives are provided, including an explanation of the epistemological underpinnings of these discourses. (...) The piece ends with what needs to be done to strengthen ethics. (shrink)

In the social sciences, the iconic definition of privilege is that of unearned advantage. Consequently, professionals in the social services may devote less attention to the examination of their own professional privilege since it has been earned. This article addresses ethical concerns about the earned privilege that accrues to professionals in the caring fields and the potential effects on service users. This paper will focus particularly on some of the pedagogical dimensions. The inherent paradox in socializing students into professional roles, (...) which enhance privilege, while attempting to reduce the power differentials with service users, requires attention by teachers. How one might lessen the hierarchy that is created between the helper and service user as a result of that privilege will be explored. The paper will detail professional privilege and both constructive and problematic impacts on the helping relationship. The ‘uneven’ advantage of being able to set the standards of health and morality are also discussed. In the process, ethical trespass may result. We will explore this concept and its implications. Because, privilege contributes to social stratification between helpers and recipients, the final segment offers one educational strategy that can be used to potentially lessen the ‘we–they’ duality. (shrink)

In this co-authored article, one contributor presents a case story from an interview with a social worker in Slovenia, while five others offer commentaries on ethical aspects of the case. The story comes from a practitioner working with a pregnant young woman, arranging for adoption following birth. The social worker respected the woman’s request to keep her identity secret, hence not registering her in the institutional records. However, whilst the social worker was on holiday, the baby was born and anonymity (...) was not maintained. Commentaries 1 and 2 evaluate the story through its form: as a narrative with a tempo and plot; and as a performance that creates its narrator as an agent with an ethical identity. Commentary 3 uses a normative moral philosophical framework (virtue ethics), while the final two commentaries take a more grounded approach. Commentary 4 views the social worker as using discretion to act in a space void of rules (there is no provision for anonymous birth), whereas Commentary 5 foregrounds the Slovenian code of ethics as a source of ethical standards unremarked upon by the social worker. The article ends with reflections on the value of exploring multiple perspectives and engaging in dialogue in developing ethical understandings and actions. (shrink)

Using a case vignette as an illustration, an expanded framework for examining ethical issues in human service practice is proposed. The article argues that the helping relationship is multiply constructed through discursive fields, rather than being a given, and that the lens of ethics must be widened to understand both the highly contradictory nature of practice, with its accompanying paradoxes, and the broader structures that constrain and influence practitioners. The article draws on the centrality of the concept of ethical trespass (...) to recognize the inevitability of some level of harm in the application of human service work, despite intention or skill. At the same time, investigating workers' uses of resistance to the dominant discourses is suggested as a means to edge toward the reduction of trespass. (shrink)

This paper explores racism specifically as an ethical concern in the field of social work and queries why it has been insufficiently emphasised in the discursive frames on ethics. The minimisation of racism as an ethical issue is illustrated utilising two research studies with racialised practitioners who highlighted experiences of racism. Epistemologies of ignorance by dominant groups contribute to norms that maintain dominance. These epistemological failings, as exemplified in social work, are delineated. Additionally, the utilisation of codes of ethics, based (...) on the work of Kant, who was also an architect of a hierarchy of races, is considered. An exploration of this historical connection, and the traditional approach to ethics used in social work that followed, illuminates a difficulty with universal principles as they are interpreted in the Global North for primary guidance in social work ethics. The outcome of these problems results in testimonial and hermeneutic injustice for those affected by racism, causing significant harm. (shrink)